NHS hospital environments 'improving'

Patient environments in NHS hospitals appear to be improving, according to a new report.

All eligible NHS hospitals and 160 independent facilities took part in the Patient Environment Action Team (Peat) research, which required hospitals to assess themselves on a number of non-clinical areas, such as cleanliness and the quality of food and drink.

Almost 95 per cent of hospitals rated themselves as 'good' or 'excellent' for patient environment in 2012, up from 92.9 per cent in 2011.

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However, the proportion that rated themselves as good or excellent for food has slipped slightly from 98 per cent to 97.7 per cent, while ratings for privacy and dignity have fallen from 98.6 per cent to 98 per cent.

Tim Straughan, chief executive of the Health and Social Care Information Centre, which published the findings, said: 'Peat results are important, as they assess aspects of hospital activity that are not related to clinical care, but nevertheless can have a significant impact on a patient's experience.

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'The figures show that both NHS and independent hospitals are scoring highly in the three areas of assessment: food, environment and dignity and privacy.'

However, the results contrast with those obtained by the Care Quality Commission's survey of adult inpatient services in 2011, which found that almost one in six patients described the hospital food as 'poor', while almost two-fifths were bothered by other patients making a noise at night.

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